A close reading of ‘The Journey’ reveals a reserved and somber tone, which gives the reader an understanding that the poem will be about a moment of sadness that is being reflected on, as to move forward from it. This is supported by the dramatic mood shift that we can see at the end of the first paragraph, changing the reader’s mind sight to focus more on a story of redemption rather than surrender. The author, Mary Oliver, does an excellent job of concealing the truth before revealing it, making the poem more powerful to the reader. 

In the first paragraph, it reads, “though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice—though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles.” Voices exist around everyone and usually it is our own voice telling us what is right and what to do; often times though, people have different voices around them, including their peers. This is important in the context of the poem because the voices that you recognize as someone else’s are the burden giving you the feeling of  “the old tug at your ankles,” making you want to push through no matter the difficulty but also understanding that sometimes you won’t be able to. The voices shouting their bad advice are going to give you the ‘trembling’ feeling, an emotion that is going to force you to rely on your own voice. It is important to realize that while both these statements may be ambiguous, the double meaning that Mary Oliver is trying to convey is that in your life there will be bad experiences and no matter if you pushed through them or not, you hope to forget them; but, these are ultimately giving you the ‘experience’ to ignore the voices and the tugging at your ankles. Mary Oliver’s style is very elaborate forcing you to go back through the poem in order to see understand the meaning in every line. The majority of the poem is narration, which can be distracting in other poems, but the complexity of Mary Oliver’s writing serves as the best option for the readers to fully grasp what she is trying to convey. At this point in the story, through the first reading the assumption is that the poem is taking a more melancholy feeling and it can be inferred that it is going to be a sad ‘Journey,’ until the next line that is.

The next line, “Mend my Life” intrigues me to the point where it almost distracts me from the meaning of the poem. This line actually stops you in your tracks and is acting as one of those outside voices and the tugging at your ankles. She is performing the idea within her own poem to get you to realize it once again.  This is at the start of the ascension during the poem and this makes me question whether the poem is actually changing. Mary Oliver makes us rethink what she may have been trying to convince us of, in turn giving us a better realization of her argument. The melancholy tone of the first six lines gives us interesting insight for later in the poem, and when we understand it at a whole. Having this variation in the mood of the poem give it an interesting dynamic, one that continues to switch where our mind focuses, forcing the reader to think about multiple sides and forcing a better understanding. The last line of the first paragraph changes the mood dramatically and sets a resounding foreshadowing for the rest of the poem. The four words, “but you didn’t stop” changed my mind for the rest of the poem and gave me a baseline for what was to come. 

The transition into the second paragraph is smooth but also has an interesting divide between it. It gives you the idea that things are improving, while also reminding you that you still need to be aware of the improvement and understand the reason behind it, to assure that you don’t go back to an unhealthy place. This paragraph functions well in displaying the balance that you need in your life in order to make sure that you can get the most out of it, while also giving other people the chance to experience the same idea. In the third paragraph Mary Oliver starts to pick up the pace and tone in order to assert that this power is becoming more dominant, and as you keep going the difficulty to sustain lessens. 

With this dominance the poem takes on a whole new meaning; the meaning changes from one of blocking out the voices around you, but rather finding your own and using it. The line containing, ‘that kept you company’ give us evidence that we always have the power to find our own voice; we often just have to finally be given a reason to try and find it. Mary Oliver takes a powerful step in giving this poem life at every turn in order to make the reader continue to try organizing and understanding the way the poem has been written. This makes everyone read closer and look back in order to find the poem’s meaning.  It starts to focus on you and as a reader it gives you the impression that this poem is directly for you and that someone is almost speaking around you just as it said earlier in the poem. Mary Oliver lets us connect with the poem so that we as readers can make the same transformation that is exemplified in the poem. Reading the poem is the start of gaining the power and makes us think about if we have found our real voice in the world. It gives you a reason to contemplate the impact that we see and we have. 

Throughout the poem Mary Oliver is taking the reader on her ‘Journey’. This journey brings the reader in and out of different mindsets, in order to afford the opportunity to understand the reading in each individual’s own right. This is an important value that the journey stresses, because it gives the reader the ability to find their own voice and use it to understand the power we can use to encourage people to experience a similar transformation. Oliver’s writing was so detailed and provocative it makes one re-evaluate how to read through a text. It gives purpose for actually understanding the words and the organization of the poem. It made the idea of a close reading a necessity, which is exemplified throughout the poem. 